Education as Social Engineering...

[teverton1]

[Deja Q]

1. Today's hype is that it's not what you know but having 'emotional intelligence',

aka "being able to manipulate other people".

A conundrum; half our society says it's a must to be smart and the other half says "it's not what you know but who you know".

Do kids really understand that or are they too busy being snots toward their teachers and makin' babies with their peers?

[Warpy]

2. Both halves are correct and I think most kids have figured

out that both halves are correct. However, for some of them, knowing facts and being competent with skills require too much time and effort so they cultivate the social framework. For others, the social framework is bewildering so they cultivate the knowledge and skills.

They're all rebelling in one form or another, passively or aggressively.

[patrice]

3. Having been "in the trenches," I think there needs to be a DYNAMIC balance

between the two perspectives that the INDIVIDUAL learns to identify and to maintain.

I cannot say that it is a bad/good thing to memorize the names and functions of the "parts of speech". Nor can I say it is a bad/good thing that all of the children out there who want to be TV/Movie performers when they grow up succeed in that objective. But since it IS Public Education, if we CAN'T get the balance precisely "Right" for each individual, I don't think it is un-reasonable if we tolerate a minor degree of error in favor of that which is good for "Us."

[Donald Ian Rankin]

4. Not, I suspect, the work of someone who has a clue what he is talking about.

I don't know how much knowledge or experience Mr Everton has of the education system - I would hazard a guess that he once worked as a schoolteacher for a little while, had a bad experience with it and left, because I find it hard to believe anyone (but me) could be so cocksure without at least some clue as to what they're talking about, but clearly, he doesn't know what he's talking about; he seems to believe that real teachers are identical to the ones one encounters in second-rate school fiction and right-wing propaganda.

I would suggest a few terms shadowing genuine schoolteachers, seeing the problems they face and how hard they work to overcome them, might do him good.

As would some training as a cartoonist - a long, cliched, poorly-thought-through rant gains nothing from being presented with silly little photos attached.

[patrice]

6. Thank you for that.

:applause:

[Bigmack]

5. Everything is social engineering...

If the govt builds roads, it is engineering away from mass transit. If the govt has schools, it is engineering toward some goals... one of which is a certain amount of conformity. Raising tuition at colleges is engineering toward killing the middle class.

The rightwingnuts are always screaming about "social engineering", when what they mean is "promoting any agenda other than our own."

And to Teverton, the cartoonist... FUCK YOU! I taught for 30 years in the high schools in a middle-class suburb. We taught critical thinking and how to question established rules. We had a school Council, comprised of kids, parents, teachers, and administrators.

In my classroom we duplicated the Milgram experiment and debated current world issues, and ... well, I could go on, but ultimately, I didn't work my balls off to produce well rounded, broadly educated kids for some self-important fuck to paint all teachers with a broad, shit-filled brush!

[Fireweed247]

10. I think the schools are going downhill fast by design

The times are a changing and they aren't for the better in our school system.

In a time when new technologies should be helping children grow more intelligent, the reverse seems to be the case.

Many people who are attacking the artist...perhaps should read more about what children are experiencing in school these days. Instead of shooting the messenger, you need to wake up! This is our future. This is the result of horrible hypocritical values in our society by people who claim our children are the most important thing and then spend all of our money on pentagon waste, illegal wars and spying on our own people.

We are quickly heading toward Idiocracy.

[Bigmack]

11. You know...

You've got a point. I retired 10 years ago.... that's about two centuries these days. I understand from the new guys that our district has turned to shit since a whole bunch of us old farts left.

The "academic freedom" section of the contract is gone, the "controversial speakers" section is gone, curriculum is mandated by NCLB, the Admin keeps the teachers young(no seniority) and scared(non-renewal of contracts for any troublemakers). They say the place is entirely different now.

So... you've got a point. NCLB has fucked things up, and the same business model that got us into this mess is the same model being used in schools.

I guess I just saw red when I saw a cartoon showing teachers pushing conformity, when my career was devoted to teaching kids -17 & 18 year-old kids- to think and question.

I must remember that the world has changed a couple of times since 1998.

[bemildred]

7. All children need first of all to learn to thrive and prosper in the social milieu

into which they are born. But one hopes that that is not the end of it, and one hopes that the education system will not work to limit the child's possibilities in the process of education. The OP may be a bit simple minded, but the stereotypes about categorizing children are well founded in educational literature, albeit from some time ago. Nevertheless, it is clear enough to anyone who is acquainted with schools that a great deal of effort is necessarily expended in regimentation as a consequence of the factory model of schooling that is prevalent. Capable adult humans are not manufactured, they are grown, an error prone process, and due respect needs to be paid to that, or the results will continue to be bad. It's all very well when 90% of humans are to be agricultural or industrial peons, but it's another thing entirely when they have to deal with a post-modern information based economy. And we all still need to have access to a good plumber now and then.

[Obamanaut]

8. The kid character in the second panel seemed intelligent enough

to have avoided the split infinitive.

[MedleyMisty]

9. Most of the replies so far

have made me lol IRL.

A ragged, sick sort of laughter, but laughter all the same.